Monday, November 19, 2007

One has to be grateful that all these housing projects are affordable, since no one bothered to negotiate with us the price of our contributions in taxes. We do at least gain the courtesy of knowing that 446 King Street is another area of town to avoid in the future.

That part of King Street is already ghetto to begin with. This is just another example of London 'dumping' all the social welfare agencies and housing slums in EOA. This will just exacerbate the situation.

OK, I stand corrected. This housing project isn't in EOA. King and Maitland is only two blocks away though.

Look, I have no problem with building assisted housing. It just seems that the city always builds these things in the same area of town. They built that tower on nearby Burwell St a few years ago and now this one. Thats the same mistake they made in Jane and Finch back in the 1960's.

They should spread these housing complexes in different areas and not cluster them in one area. That is likely why Dundas East will likely never be redeveloped. That's all I'm saying.

I like the idea of housing that is affordable, easy to get to, sometimes specialized for certain deficiencies, such as a place where the mentally ill can live "normally", but still have someone to watch over them, and provide assisstance to them. Joe Public is not likely to help someone having an episode, nor lend an ear when someone with depression needs it.

Knowingly or not, btw, putting housing for the [less fortunate] masses in one place makes them easy targets for illegal activities (like drugs, payday loans etc) since they are grouped together. Putting the whole herd at the back pasture doesn't keep the wolves off the farm.

When a city creates a ghetto, they do so with purpose and planning. The area is ideal, not only for an epidemic of HIV, TB or avian flu, but look at the amnemities close by.

They have the methodone clinc handy, soup kitchens galore, the unity house, the Intercommunity Health center, Lifespin, numerous pawn shops, Options clinic, a funeral parlour, and the cop shop. A wee bit of hike for someone on crack to trek, but the center of hope is not that far away.

The city is probably thinking it is for the best, they can sort of be the canaries in the coal mine. Some real bad dose of something comes through it will wipe them out first.

Why would you even try to expose these people to any other life except what they know? It would be cruel for them to see people going to work. It would even be worse if they noticed some people don't sleep curled up around a needle, or a bottle. It might hurt their feelings if expectations of climbing out of the dark hole of addiciton was a real goal.

Best to let them live amongst their own, and learn....well learn how to stay where they are.

I wonder where they will be putting the new safe injection site?

I bet the socialist are clawing each others eyes out to get on that money maker.

Cities never learn, the ghettos always come back and bite them in the ass big time.

Look, there are more than enough social service agencies EOA without lumping the ones that are NOT in EOA with the ones that are. As anyone who spends any time downtown, say at Dundas & Richmond, knows, social service agencies and EOA aren't synonymous any longer (contrary to what Elaine is surely going to say?)

Trying to compare this building with the mess that is (was?) Jane-Finch is pushing the envelope way too far. The Burwell building is two blocks away, there are some more affordable housing units on Queen's Avenue, and I'm not sure that I would agree anyway that either of these are "city buildings"; Jane-Finch are contiguous concrete bunkers, and they are city-buildings.

I think, Jake, that you, I and Niac all agree on the negative effects of clustering, although I don't think we'll be seeing any other support for this proposition here.

You never cease to amaze me, elaine. All these years of arguing that Old East is a social service ghetto, full of crackheads and idiot residents, created by the city to keep the dregs of society EOA, and you still can't seem to get it through that melonhead of yours that the police station, the methadone clinic, the funeral parlour and the coffee house are WEST of Adelaide.

I suppose I should put this all in the same post, elaine, but I would be interested to see the citation from the Substance Abuse Strategy (or any other city document) where the city is promoting the establishment of a safe injection site. I may be missing something. My reading has turned up only a reference to safe injection sites NOT being a part of the Strategy.

I used to work just west of the "EOA", no, not at the Meth clinic, not even the high school across from it. ;)

"EOA" is somewhat of a misnomer, since, well ya...EOA is not very nice. I turned around in the CT parking lot and was asked by a woman in overly tight jeans and a parka (it was cold) if I needed a "date". That same type of thing goes on at a convenience store I won't mention because more than just prostitution is going on there...and they are what, 3 blocks west of Adelaide...and the Police Station?

I hate to say this, but in my experience (even though I know grown men who fear travelling down Dundas to the east of Adelaide) in London in 20+ years now, the EOA, albeit "bad", is hardly the worst spot in London. It just looks that way.

...oh and annoy. I also noticed they have foot patrols on Horton and Wellington. Not just sometimes, all the time.

What is that telling you about the Old East area? They have wrote it off, and....they is chasing those hookers back down there, because Soho people who have way more money than you guys don't want them down there.

Niac, I am with you on providing homes for the mentally ill with supervision.

I lived at one time close to an older couple, who were retired and provided such a home for about 5 adults suffereing from mental health issues.

Everyone on the street looked out for them. One time Charlene got lost, and everyone in the hood was out looking for her. The police found her and brought her home. They couldn't live on their own, they needed someone to make sure they took their meds and other essentials that the mentally ill sometimes forget.

Funny how the cop shop was in Old East when they were crying to make it look like the Taj Mahal.

As I remember the presentation, the argument wasn't that the police station was in Old East, it was that the station was at the intersection of three heritage districts - Old East, East Woodfield, and the Commercial Corridor. The building could have been a "gateway feature."

No doubt that Clark guy who was lied to, and was told the Aoleian hall in Old East was a gem,,wants to know stick his head in a gas oven, knowing he can't get rid of it.

You should have a conversation with Clark, elaine, instead of prestending to be his spokesperson. I think you might be surprised at what he has to say. But, please, don't take my word for it.

Just because you put Adelaide which is how many feet wide, as the dividing line doesn't mean it isn't in your hood

I didn't pick Adelaide as a dividing line. It's a historical distinction. And, yes, the antics WOA do have an effect EOA.

I did talk to Clark one night, I was down at the hall for a meeting. He was stating how he was tired of chasing hookers off his front steps with a baseball bat.

The social agencies were there that night, along with some politicians. I just stood up and said my speil about how the excessive amount of social agencies were destroying the business district.

I knew they didn't care, but I said it anyway. The business association and the community association were there. They can't get enough of kissing the social agencies and the politicians asses, so I knew fuck all would be done.

I feel bad for the Clark guy, he is wasting his time and money down there trying to improve the area.

Every few years someone tries, but as long as you have the ICHC there, with their big bucks behind them, that place will remain a ghetto.

They have branched out to the Huron Street area in an attempt to destroy it, but I think the business in that area won't allow it.

They are in the schools in that area because of the great number of stupid lazy parents who won't get up in the morning to fed their kids. I suppose someone has to. There is a price to pay for those breakfast programs, you get to give up your dignity, and that of your childs.

I don't understand why I had to pay full price for all the apartments I ever rented. Perhaps my taste for alcohol was not strong enough for me to deserve it.

I don't understand why municipal governments should also be landlords. Perhaps some crack might help me with that reasoning.

I don't understand why I, as someone who paid full price for my house, should be forced to pay for overpriced housing for people who will most certainly disrespect and trash the place, requiring overpriced renovations. I think I need to work on my overactive impulse control; then maybe it will be the kind of no-brainer it apparently is to everybody else.

Those places will shortly be expensive, trashed crime dens of despair. That is what happens everywhere.

It isn't that I don't care, it's just that... oh, wait. Actually, yeah, it is that I don't care.

Those places are hell holes. Anyone who has tried to make them better, are told to move out.

Every creep straight out of the pen gets first dibs.

I remember it was in the paper a few years back that one violent bastard who was out on patrol, way too early, was living in one of them.

It was in the paper.At the time Roger Caranci was trying to get him thrown out at the request of the other tenants. Saint Susan Eagle came to the rescue of the fuckwit and wouldn't let him be thrown out.

It is no place for a kid to be living, in these ghettos, where any crack head or criminal with a sob story are housed.

They haven't room for all the crackheads in jails, so they build affordable housing for them. Usually in the seedy downtown area of all cities.

They have this belief if you give a crack addict free digs, close to all crack addict enabling services, and a welfare cheque to buy their months supply of crack, it will somehow turn them into law abiding citizens.

They usually put all the mentally ill in with them, so the addicts can exploit them, and leave the rest of the citizens alone.

It does work for a time, but then the crack addicts get bored and shoot some rich white kid, and then it all goes to hell.